Saturday, May 14, 2005
OK, a rant against the methodist church, and its lack of appeal to anyone under 65.
Amanda makes a very interesting point about the stricter churches having more appeal, especially to the gullible. "Attend our church or burn in hell." Obviously a fallacy, but for those who fall for it, the benefits of not burning in hell outweigh the costs.
The methodists don't make this claim. It strikes me as social gospel. At a time when not going to church made one a pariah, the methodists offered church lite. Like east germany under the stasi, methodists pretend to believe in god, and go thru the motions.
In some areas, especially urban congregations, the methodists do get involved in their community and make a difference, and that counts. But that's relatively few congregations. A typical methodist church arranges funerals and weddings, child care, sunday school, visiting the sick, with maybe ties to a junior college or a nursing home or a hospital. A funeral parlor is at least more explicit about just being a business.
Particularly annoying are the young couples, who start going to church when they have children, and stop when the children go off to college.
Bad enough to be raised by foolish holy rollers, but hypocrisy is almost worse.
I am autistic; I don't like to be bullied or forced into things not of my choosing.
The made me go to government schools; I became an anarchist.
I was dragged to a methodist church every sunday, and grew up as an agnostic.
If the boy scouts had known i was agnostic, I could have been kicked out, and boy scouts was my chance to get out into the woods now and then. Being in the woods is for me the one true church; I gladly embraced wicca at 15, and have come to have an ecumenical appreciation for various forms of spirituality.
Ok, that's most of the rant. But then there's the music: greatest hits of 1648.
I would urge then to immediately scrap that stuff for something with more appeal, but then I've heard the so called christian rock stations, which are worse.
What the methodists don't seem to get is that once it became socially acceptable to not go to church, most of the reason for being methodist vanished.
Now, again, I am autistic; by nature I am paranoid and aloof. I'm also a bit tone-deaf, and may be missing something in the music that others experience.
Maybe the average methodist church is a vibrant community of believers celebrating the kingdom of heaven on earth. But that wasn't how it seemed.
At one time, the methodists, like the baptists, were radicals, mobilizing the working classes, fighting to make this a better planet. If they could get in touch with that again, younger people might see a reason to get involved.
Amanda makes a very interesting point about the stricter churches having more appeal, especially to the gullible. "Attend our church or burn in hell." Obviously a fallacy, but for those who fall for it, the benefits of not burning in hell outweigh the costs.
The methodists don't make this claim. It strikes me as social gospel. At a time when not going to church made one a pariah, the methodists offered church lite. Like east germany under the stasi, methodists pretend to believe in god, and go thru the motions.
In some areas, especially urban congregations, the methodists do get involved in their community and make a difference, and that counts. But that's relatively few congregations. A typical methodist church arranges funerals and weddings, child care, sunday school, visiting the sick, with maybe ties to a junior college or a nursing home or a hospital. A funeral parlor is at least more explicit about just being a business.
Particularly annoying are the young couples, who start going to church when they have children, and stop when the children go off to college.
Bad enough to be raised by foolish holy rollers, but hypocrisy is almost worse.
I am autistic; I don't like to be bullied or forced into things not of my choosing.
The made me go to government schools; I became an anarchist.
I was dragged to a methodist church every sunday, and grew up as an agnostic.
If the boy scouts had known i was agnostic, I could have been kicked out, and boy scouts was my chance to get out into the woods now and then. Being in the woods is for me the one true church; I gladly embraced wicca at 15, and have come to have an ecumenical appreciation for various forms of spirituality.
Ok, that's most of the rant. But then there's the music: greatest hits of 1648.
I would urge then to immediately scrap that stuff for something with more appeal, but then I've heard the so called christian rock stations, which are worse.
What the methodists don't seem to get is that once it became socially acceptable to not go to church, most of the reason for being methodist vanished.
Now, again, I am autistic; by nature I am paranoid and aloof. I'm also a bit tone-deaf, and may be missing something in the music that others experience.
Maybe the average methodist church is a vibrant community of believers celebrating the kingdom of heaven on earth. But that wasn't how it seemed.
At one time, the methodists, like the baptists, were radicals, mobilizing the working classes, fighting to make this a better planet. If they could get in touch with that again, younger people might see a reason to get involved.
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